In the Media

The Associated Press November 11, 2010, 5:40PM ET

Firm in Md. gets defense deal for skin substitute

WALKERSVILLE, Md. The Swiss biotechnology company Lonza Group Ltd. is announcing more than $18 million in U.S. defense funding to develop a skin substitute grown from the patient's own cells.  

Spokeswoman Melanie Disa said Thursday that Lonza's Walkersville unit received a $1.5 million grant and a $16.9 million contract to develop and commercialize its PermaDerm product.

PermaDerm is aimed at both military and civilian burn victims with severe burns over at least 50 percent of their bodies.

Lonza recently licensed worldwide marketing rights to Regenicin (re-GEN'-ih-sin) Inc. of Little Falls, N.J., provided PermaDerm wins federal regulatory approval.

Disa says clinical trials should begin in early 2011 at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and another site yet to be determined.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9JE71U82.htm

The PermaDerm® skin regeneration technology was mentioned on the

CBS News 60 Minutes Feature ‘Growing Body Parts'.

December 13th, 2009
Morley Safer Reports On The Amazing Science Of Regenerative Medicine Growing Body Parts.

"It sounds like science fiction, but the fact is biotech companies and the government are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into research they hope will one day make it possible for us to grow new body parts. It is called regenerative medicine and the goal is to help the thousands waiting for organ transplants and the hundreds of veterans who return from Iraq and Afghanistan horribly maimed."